Core Concepts

A Contract is a proposal for a subscription or a one-time charge to a customer. Contracts typically include a signature step before a subscription begins and are commonly used in enterprise sales workflows.

Maple Contracts simplifies the quote-to-cash process by making it easy to create and share contracts, follow up for signatures, and automatically generate the associated subscriptions once signed.

In addition to billing-related contracts, Maple also supports Agreements such as NDAs, Terms of Service, or partnership terms. Agreements formalize legal or operational relationships without triggering billing and provide a consistent, auditable record of non-financial commitments between your business and your customers.

When you sign up with Maple, a Company is automatically provisioned for your application. All entities described below exist within the context of that company.
A company can be configured with its address, preferred timezone, currency, and branding to ensure that all billing and communication reflect your business identity.

Customers in Maple can be created manually, via API, or imported from your CRM. Each customer includes key details such as their unique ID, contact information, organization details, and optional metadata for mapping additional fields.

You can assign account owners (e.g., Sales Reps or Account Executives) to manage relationships and receive invoice or payment notifications. Tags can be added to customers to segment metrics or trigger automated actions for things like demographics or engagement.

Maple also supports parent–child billing relationships for complex organizational structures and a configurable Customer Portal for self-service billing management.

An Invoice represents charges for a customer, whether recurring or one-time.
Maple allows you to preview upcoming invoices, which is especially useful for usage-based billing.

Payments are processed through integrated providers that handle the collection of charges. Maple integrations support complete payment workflows from invoice creation to payment confirmation.

Products define what you sell, and Pricing determines how you charge for it.

Pricing begins by defining item prices for each billable metric and combining them into product pricing with one or more billable components.
Each product represents a distinct offering, such as Basic, Pro, or Enterprise, with its own configuration of prices and metrics.

Billable Items and Metrics form the foundation of billing in Maple.

• Billable Items represent the components of your product that generate revenue, such as Licenses, API Calls, or Users.

• Items can be usage-based and transient (for example, API Calls) or object-based and persistent (for example, Users).

• Billable Metrics are the aggregation rules that define how usage or quantities are measured for billing.

Metrics query over events or objects to calculate the aggregate values that determine what is billed to the customer.

Maple supports both transient, usage-based metering and persistent, object-based metering.

• Events track transient usage-based actions such as API calls or transactions.

• Objects track persistent entities such as users, seats, or devices.

This distinction affects how revenue is categorized.

Revenue from persistent objects contributes to recurring revenue (MRR), while revenue from transient events does not unless sold as pre-purchased units.

A Subscription represents an ongoing service provided to a customer.
Each subscription can include one or more product pricings so that customers receive a single invoice covering multiple active products under their account.